Something Worth Fighting For
by Ariadne Silver-Rose
Summary: It was always the three of them, Fred, George and Katherine. From the very first day on the Hogwarts express. No matter what happened. No matter what truths were revealed. She was as good as family, nothing would ever change that. The story of Katherine Cartwright, love, loyalty and belonging.
1. Chapter 1

September 1989

She had wandered alone into the station following the instructions she'd been given and grinned in surprise as she walked though the barrier. She got onto the train as soon as she could wanting to escape the crowds of strange looks at the eleven year old with no company. Company had been offered she had refused. Because what would be more embarrassing than arriving at a new school with a teacher. She found a compartment as the train was relatively empty it would seem most people were hanging around the platform to be wished off by family. She sat in the seat closest to the compartment door and looked out the window facing away from the people. She waited and waited and Katherine begun to wonder if she was on the wrong train. Then again how many magically concealed school trains could there be to catch. Eventually the train started to fill as excited kids her own age looked around squealing at everything they saw but really it was a train, an old fashioned steam train like the one Katherine had been to last summer on a trip with the orphanage. No one entered her compartment. She pushed her self away from the door she'd closed and back towards the window but closed her eyes so not to see the crowd. Too many goodbyes for her liking. Mothers crying over not seeing their children until Christmas or at worst next summer. Over reactions in her opinion. She kept her eyes closed and nearly drifted into sleep until the train jolted to a start and waked her immediately.

"Ah, told you, not asleep, I win George"

Katherine looked up to see to boys had joined her in the compartment just as the train left the station. Two identical boys.

"No, that's the face of someone who's been rudely awaken." Said George.

"Actually this is the face of a girl wondering why you are betting on her?" They looked suddenly surprised "and shockingly the girl can talk." She added with smile.

"Sorry, we couldn't find another compartment." The one not called George said. Both boys had striking ginger hair and freckle scattered over their faces. They were tall for there age which couldn't be much older than her if at all. They both had cheeky smiles as the other twin said this only George's remained central and his twin's curved up to the right.

"Oh that's fine but why the betting?" The boys both blushed slightly shifting in their seat before George spoke

"Well you know gotta make you're own fun don't you?"

"Yeah, sorry if you felt uncomfortable or anything." His twin added smiling again.

"It's fine, just a bit defensive, I'm Katherine by the way." She extended her hand out to either of them and the second twin shook it.

"Fred Weasley and this is my cousin," indicating to George.

"George Weasley,"

They weren't falling her but she could tell they were prober jokers so she played along.

"Wow cousins you look so similar I'd have thought you were twins," she over emphasised all her words and the boys both grinned.

"We are actually." They laughed to them selves.

"Yes I did get that." She looked at their clothes and saw that, like her, they were old and worn them in faded checked shirts and patched up brown trousers that showed their ankles. She now felt less awkward in her faded black mini dress that wasn't really mini as it was two sizes big and sat just above her knees. It hung oddly around her skinny limbs and her cardigan had holes in. They seemed to notice her looking their cloths and then to her own but said nothing. She leaned back against the window and watched as they left London and the skyscrapers turned to trees and fields. 20 minutes into their journey she felt her stomach grumble. The twins were talking to each other about hogswarts quickly using words she didn't understand she assumed they knew a lot about it already which didn't calm her nerves. She reached into her bag to find the paper cup stuffed with sweets, a gift from her old roommate and closest friend she had really. She popped the lid off and thought what Lucy has said. She sighed inwardly, Lucy could make a good situation out of anything which was an unusual trait in someone of their up bringing but non the less she took her friend making advice and offered the boys a sweet.  
"Cheers." They said in unison each taking a sweet before examining it curiously before popping it in their mouth. They chewed curiously.  
"Hey muggle sweets ain't too bad!" Fred exclaimed.

"Do wizards have different sweets then?" Katherine asked the conversation peaking her interest.

"You've never had wizard sweets, aww Kat just you wait, apparently a women comes along with a trolley full of wizard sweets," Fred said.

"We've been saving up." George added.

"It's Katherine, and what are they like?" The twins stared at her intrigued that she was new to all this. Of course their mum and dad had told them to be polite and considerate that not everyone was from a magical background, but she was interesting non the less.

"Just you wait and see Katty." Fred said his eyes sparkling.

"Fred had been right, half an hour later the three sat their bellies full of the sugary goodness. Every thing had been new and exciting to her,the first signs of magic since diagonally and the platform entrance, not that the sweets were magically in them selves, but everything knew showed her that this was really happening. She spoke to the twins for the remaining journey, they were from a wizarding family, nine of them in total, they proceeded 3 elder brothers,one of them, Percy entered there compartment dressed in school ropes embellished with a red and gold crest showing a creature with the face of a lion. His tie matched the crest and he quickly told his brothers and their new companion to change out of there current entire. He assessed Katherine briefly over the top of his horn rimed spectacles he quickly left their compartment.

"Pompous git," George muttered after him.

"only a third year and he's alre acting like a prefect." Fred informed Katherine. Next she asked them about Hogwarts, they explained houses and Quidditch, the different lessons and then, their faces a light with excitment, explained the rules, or more specifically how they intended to break them. Katherine left the compartment to change into her robes. In her absense the boys spoke together quickly.

"she seems cool," Fred said smiling, George nodded in agreement.

"we said we'd want to find a lookout."

"Yeah but is she up to the task?" Fred asked.

Outside the compartment Katherine smiled. She'd made friends. That was a good start and she knew she was up for the task.


	2. Chapter 2

Sorting

Now dressed in her crisp new robes Katherine re-entered the compartment, the twins were also dressed though their robes were old and worn, Katherine assumed they had been handed down by the elder brothers. Fred's seemed to have been turned up at the leg and George's were slightly too baggy around the shoulders. They spoke about Katherine for the remaining journey. They thought she was a muggle born, her explanation had them hanging onto her every word.

"So you see Dumbledore doesn't know who my parents were but he said he's going to look into it, he assured me in his letters, they must have been from this world, I had an account in Gringots left for me, but it was opened anonymously. I was shocked, I mean I'd always lived thinking I'd been abandoned in that orphanage, but really my parents gave me up to protect me, and they died, killed by this, dark wizard, I can't remember his name," she slowed towards the end sniffing back a sob.

"We call him you know who." George interjected softly.

"Yeah, well he's gone now right."

"Yeah, he's gone." Fred reassured her squeezing her hand.

"Yeah and maybe coming to Hogwarts, you might find out who those parents were." George suggested with a smile.

"I hope so."

A few minutes later they'd arrived, Katherine stuck close by the twins as she came face to face with the largest man she'd ever see. Hagrid introduced him self with a cheery wave and instructed the first years to follow him to the boats. For the journey they were joined by a another girl with long mousy hair, the girl said nothing to them as they made the crossing, her face constantly contorted with fear. Katherine and the twins had been talking about the possibility that the black lake, as they referred to it, contained a giant squid but they too were silent as the castle came into view. Katherine stared up at it, it's turrets shone with the gold lanterns placed at each window. A beacon of light cutting against the night sky. Looking up at the grand castle Katherine felt small, but also the strangest warmth inside her. Being here felt right. She caught Fred's eye and grinned,

"It's better than Charlie said it was, grander I mean." Fred said awestruck.

George lent in from behind them,

"Can't believe we are finally here Freddie."

George bounced gleefully in his seat causing it too rock and there other companion to shoot him a furious glare. They moored up the boats before staring up the long track to the castle. They eventually came to a set of large wooden doors, ornately carved and three times as tall as even the giant. From the back of the crowd Katherine and the Weasley twins saw the door swing open slowly, a warm glow radiating from inside. As they were lead in to a small chamber Katherine recognise the stern looking black haired witch,

"She was the one who came to the orphanage, she passed on Dumbledore's letters, she told me about all of this," she gestured around her whispering to the twins. But Professor Mcgonagall had gone quiet and was staring, one slim eyebrow raised at her. Katherine swallowed and smiled hopefully.

The deputy head said nothing and readdressed the group, she explained the house points and the house cup.

As they made their way into the great hall Katherine turned back to the twins,

"Maybe we'll be in the same house." They both grinned,

"I hope so." Fred said.

Katherine laughed at the singing hat, but was surprised that it was going to be deciding which house they'd be in. She watched as the three first years before her were sorted, the first, Lacey Antin, was sorted into Slytherin after the hat had fallen over the girls eyes, they waited, the hall was silent until the hat called out Slytherin. The short girl with platinum curls ran down to join the cheering table. Of the other four one went to Hufflepuff and the other Ravenclaw.

"Katherine Cartwright." Professor Mcgonagall called.

Katherine tried to gather her thoughts, this hat was going to look inside her and decide were she would be place, for the previous three this had taken a good thirty seconds. What did she have to do, should she be thinking of something in particular, or let her mind go blank.

As she approached the three legged stall she became aware of all the eyes staring at her. Slowly the hat landed on her head but before it could fall over her eyes it screamed Slytherin to the hall.

Katherine froze as did the rest off the hall, no one else had been sorted so fast, a second later the Slytherin table erupted in applause. She quickly made her way down, sitting between Lacey and a stocky boy with short brown hair. Katherine glanced back to the twins, they smiled awkwardly, making her remember what they'd said about Slytherin on the train.

"I don't really mind where I end up," Fred had said.

"Yeah, but mum would explode if it was Slytherin," George had interjected.

"Slytherins have a reputation, they aren't known to be nicest, lots of dark wizards in their history," Fred explained.

Katherine turned away from them to face her new house's table. Down the end furthest from the teachers table, was a group of large burly men, each of them seemed to have broken a nose or had some teeth missing. But there were also groups that looked fairly ordinary, they smiled in her direction, some closest even asked who she was, one boy, couldn't have been much older than her, with a sharp pointed nose and a cruel smirk asked why the sorting hat had sorted her, who was her family and why had he never heard the name Cartwright before. He was quickly slapped on the arm by the tall girl next to him,

"Excuse my brother, he's never been the best at holding his tongue," the airline looked around sixteen and had a much softer face than her little brother. She shrugged her long ash blonde hair over her shoulder as she leant across the table hand extended, "Marie-Anne Oakley, and that was my brother, Tobias." Katherine shook it quickly before cheering with everyone else as another first year, Michael King, was sorted into Slytherin. More and more first years piled into their sorted houses, Katherine's hands felt numb from clapping and her throat horse from cheering. The Slytherins seemed to like to cheer the loudest and always needed to be silenced by Dumbledore before the next first year could be sorted. Eventually it was Fred and George's turn to be sorted and Katherine, after remembering their whole family had been in Gryffindor. Unsurprisingly that's where they both ended up, there was a booming cheer from further down the Gryffindor table for each of them, Katherine couldn't make out the face but saw a mop of red hair, must be Charlie, she thought.

With the sorting over and Albus Dumbledore's short but sweet speech finished the feast begun, Katherine had never seen such quantity and variety of food, all her favourite were there for the choosing. She glance across to the Gryffindor table, Fred caught her eye and grinned, she grinned back and helped herself to some broccoli.


End file.
